An unexpected side-effect of the flooding in parts of Pakistan has been that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters. Because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water has taken so long to recede, many trees have become cocooned in spiders’ webs.

A Chinkara gazelle fawn rests in the plumage of a peacock at an animal rescue center on a hot summer day in Bikaner, Rajasthan, India, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (Photo by Dinesh Gupta/AP Photo)

A peacock walks next to the Monastery of the Holy Apostles, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, northern Israel November 30, 2016. About 1 million tourists from abroad visit the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberias or Kinneret, each year, according to the Israeli Tourism Ministry. (Photo by Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

A person dressed up as Spider-Man sits next to the cabs as taxi drivers hold a protest against taxi-hailing apps such as Uber, Cabify and Didi at Angel de la Independencia monument, in Mexico City, Mexico, October 12, 2020. (Photo by Edgard Garrido/Reuters)

6th Place: Javier Rupérez, Almáchar, Málaga, Spain. Small white hair spider. Reflected Light, Image Stacking, 20x (Objective Lens Magnification). (Photo by Javier Rupérez/Nikon's Small World 2019)

Cast member, Iranian actress Zar Amir-Ebrahimi poses during a photocall for the film “Holy Spider” at the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 23, 2022. (Photo by Stephane Mahe/Reuters)

Igor Armicach, a doctoral student at Hebrew University's Arachnid Collection, looks onto giant spider webs, spun by long-jawed spiders (Tetragnatha), covering sections of the vegetation along the Soreq creek bank, near Jerusalem, Israel on November 7, 2017. (Photo by Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

“Hey! I'm Thomas Shahan, an artist and macrophotographer from Oklahoma. In my spare time over the past few years, I've been shooting portraiture of local arthropods. Why would I devote countless hours to tramping through forests, fields and the like searching for insects and spiders? Well, despite some common beliefs, arthropods (members of the phylum Arthropoda – insects, spiders, crustaceans...) represent an endlessly varied, wildly beautiful and fascinating bunch of animals with surprisingly personable faces and behavior. Often, all it takes is simply inspecting their lives on a closer level to turn repulsion to reverence”. – Thomas Shahan

Photo: Adult Male Jumping Spider at Sunset – Phidippus mystaceus. (Photo by Thomas Shahan; Source: Flickr)